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Duck call making becomes labor of love
Todd Vinyard, Scripps Howard News Service
7/24/03
Buck Gardner and Fred Hinkle love the sound and look of duck calls. It's a passion that comes through loud and clear.
For Gardner, a world champion duck caller, the one-time hobby is now a business - Buck Gardner Calls - that seeks to be innovative and still reach the average duck hunter in price and ability to blow the call.
Hinkle's search into the history of duck calling led to his company, Wild Calls, Ltd, which strives to make calls that are pieces of fine art and remind collectors and hunters of older days.
Talking with each of them means being introduced to what seems to be a labor of love - making good duck calls.
Gardner, of Memphis, Tenn., is known in duck calling circles for winning the 1994 World Championship and then achieving the Champion of Champions honor the next year.
He started a waterfowl business in 1986 that produces Arkansas-style calls that can blow when wet, and also compact discs on duck calling.
After some health problems, Gardner is back full time doing what he enjoys most - making duck calls and taking them to the mass duck hunting audiences.
"I love what I do," Gardner said. "To be able to do what I love is a real blessing."
Gardner is excited about his newest duck calls, The Double Nasty II, Tall Timber II and Fowl Mouth. The new polycarbonite calls are $19.99 each retail.
"We've been taking a lot of time in making these calls," Gardner said. "We have duck calls that sell for $124, but these new calls are for people who want the durability and sound of an acrylic call without the high price."
Gardner's company also makes goose and deer calls.
Hinkle of Oakland, Tenn., likes the challenge and history of call making, too.
After buying some property at Reelfoot Lake, Hinkle began learning the history of duck calling.
He studied the work of Victor Glodo. Ducks Unlimited Magazine calls Glodo (1850-1910) one of the founding fathers of American duck calls because his design was the first to survive in its original form to the present.
Hinkle and his son-in-law Roger Brakefield began producing calls that would try to live up to those original finely crafted calls.
"It takes weeks to produce a hand-made call and we know will never get rich selling them, but that is not the point," said Hinkle, whose price list shows calls from $59 to $840. "We want to make calls that stand the test of time and are remembered."
That craftsmanship is showing up in awards for Wild Calls Ltd. A call that Ty Black and Wild Calls Ltd produced together, the Tennessee High-Ball six-pack, won second place from the National Call Makers and Collectors Association this year. The set consists of six, three-inch calls. Each call is made of a different wood, from mahogany to hickory. Another call from Wild Calls Ltd, the Golden Tongue match set, took first place from the National Call Makers and Collectors Association. And the company picked up an honorable mention at the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention this year for a match set.
"Seeing people blow duck calls that they didn't think they could is a great thrill for me," Gardner said.
ON THE WEB: www.buckgardner.com and http://www.wildcallsltd.com.
- Contact Todd Vinyard at vinyard@gomemphis.com.
(Todd Vinyard is outdoors editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., at http://www.gomemphis.com.)
Todd Vinyard, Scripps Howard News Service
7/24/03
Buck Gardner and Fred Hinkle love the sound and look of duck calls. It's a passion that comes through loud and clear.
For Gardner, a world champion duck caller, the one-time hobby is now a business - Buck Gardner Calls - that seeks to be innovative and still reach the average duck hunter in price and ability to blow the call.
Hinkle's search into the history of duck calling led to his company, Wild Calls, Ltd, which strives to make calls that are pieces of fine art and remind collectors and hunters of older days.
Talking with each of them means being introduced to what seems to be a labor of love - making good duck calls.
Gardner, of Memphis, Tenn., is known in duck calling circles for winning the 1994 World Championship and then achieving the Champion of Champions honor the next year.
He started a waterfowl business in 1986 that produces Arkansas-style calls that can blow when wet, and also compact discs on duck calling.
After some health problems, Gardner is back full time doing what he enjoys most - making duck calls and taking them to the mass duck hunting audiences.
"I love what I do," Gardner said. "To be able to do what I love is a real blessing."
Gardner is excited about his newest duck calls, The Double Nasty II, Tall Timber II and Fowl Mouth. The new polycarbonite calls are $19.99 each retail.
"We've been taking a lot of time in making these calls," Gardner said. "We have duck calls that sell for $124, but these new calls are for people who want the durability and sound of an acrylic call without the high price."
Gardner's company also makes goose and deer calls.
Hinkle of Oakland, Tenn., likes the challenge and history of call making, too.
After buying some property at Reelfoot Lake, Hinkle began learning the history of duck calling.
He studied the work of Victor Glodo. Ducks Unlimited Magazine calls Glodo (1850-1910) one of the founding fathers of American duck calls because his design was the first to survive in its original form to the present.
Hinkle and his son-in-law Roger Brakefield began producing calls that would try to live up to those original finely crafted calls.
"It takes weeks to produce a hand-made call and we know will never get rich selling them, but that is not the point," said Hinkle, whose price list shows calls from $59 to $840. "We want to make calls that stand the test of time and are remembered."
That craftsmanship is showing up in awards for Wild Calls Ltd. A call that Ty Black and Wild Calls Ltd produced together, the Tennessee High-Ball six-pack, won second place from the National Call Makers and Collectors Association this year. The set consists of six, three-inch calls. Each call is made of a different wood, from mahogany to hickory. Another call from Wild Calls Ltd, the Golden Tongue match set, took first place from the National Call Makers and Collectors Association. And the company picked up an honorable mention at the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention this year for a match set.
"Seeing people blow duck calls that they didn't think they could is a great thrill for me," Gardner said.
ON THE WEB: www.buckgardner.com and http://www.wildcallsltd.com.
- Contact Todd Vinyard at vinyard@gomemphis.com.
(Todd Vinyard is outdoors editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., at http://www.gomemphis.com.)
